Install both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of libgoogle-perftools-dev

Question

I am on Debian Stretch and need google-perftools to profile some programs of mine. My machine is 64-bit; I build the programs for both 64 and 32-bit (using gcc -m32). I want to be able to profile both. I already have libgoogle-perftools-dev installed. When I now try to add the x86 variant, apt wants to remove the x64 variant (see below). Is it possible to install the two variants alongside each other?

$ sudo apt install libgoogle-perftools-dev:i386
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libboost-chrono1.62.0 libboost-program-options1.62.0 libboost-regex1.62.0 libboost-thread1.62.0 libstemmer0d
  libunwind-dev libunwind8 libunwind8-dev libyaml-cpp0.5v5 mongo-tools
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libgoogle-perftools4:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libtcmalloc-minimal4:i386
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  google-perftools libgoogle-perftools-dev libgoogle-perftools4 libtcmalloc-minimal4 mongodb mongodb-clients
  mongodb-server
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libgoogle-perftools-dev:i386 libgoogle-perftools4:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libtcmalloc-minimal4:i386
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 7 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,247 kB of archives.
After this operation, 115 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 

Answer 1

The various google-perftools packages don’t have the necessary Multi-Arch: declarations in their control file, so no, it isn’t possible to install the i386 and amd64 packages in parallel (short of force-installing them, which will cause apt to complain a lot and prevent installing or upgrading any other package).

You might want to file a bug asking for this to be enabled. To do so, run reportbug libgoogle-perftools-dev and follow the prompts.

See How do I run 32-bit programs on a 64-bit Debian/Ubuntu? for other ways to run 32-bit programs on a 64-bit system (as suggested by Gilles).